Live As If Your Kids Are Watching

Sallie Krawcheck, Chair of Ellevate Network and Ellevate Asset Management, posted a great article to LinkedIn this week, “Why You Should Work As Though Your Kids Are Watching.”

She relates two stories about her children and realizes that unbeknownst to her, they had been observing her “at work”,

The first story is about her son, a young teenager at the time, and how she discovered at dinner one night that he was not a fan of Wall Street and some of its people, When she asked him if she realized that she worked on Wall Street, he said that he did, but that he had googled her and found out that she was one of the good guys.

The second story is about her daughter, who is currently interning for her mom at Ellevate. When Sallie was telling her daughter of all the perks she had in her former career on Wall Street (big office, a driver, a jet, fresh-baked cookies), and noting how different it is in their cramped space at Ellevate, her daughter replied, “So what? Sure, the money’s not as good, but look at how much happier you are, Mom, than in your last job. You’re creating something and you’re trying to make a difference in the lives of women.”

Sallie then realized that we should work as though our children are watching, because they are. Even if we don’t think they are, they are.

After reading the excellent post, one of my first thoughts was that it could have gone further.

We shouldn’t just work as if our kids are watching, but we should live as if they are watching, because again, they are.

I think most of us want our kids to be proud of us, and we want to set a good example for them. Imagine how different many of our decisions and actions might be if we knew our kids were watching our every step.

I have often made decisions after considering what my kids would think of me as a result of such decisions.

And if you think your off the hook because your kids are all grown up or because you’ve never had kids, then I’ll leave you with this thought from H. Jackson Browne, author of Life’s Little Instruction book,

“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”

So whether your kids are watching or no one is watching, do the right thing…

*photo courtesy of theskinnyconfidential.com